A selection of ceramics through the ages (5 second delay) Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology The Collections:
PotWeb: Ceramics online
@ the Ashmolean Museum
Early Europe & Near East
Classical to Medieval
Europe from 1500
Oriental & Islamic
A Vessel for everyman and his family
Acquiring the vessel
A family might have bought vessels from a market stall, either paying in cash or exchanging products that they had produced themselves. Hawkers (door-to-door salesmen) operated in many areas; fairs and seasonal festivals provided important mechanisms for exchange. Otherwise ceramic vessels may have been purchased directly from the potter at a production centre. In the later medieval period it became possible to buy pots from shops. This variety of acquisition methods generates complex patterns, but some broad trends can be seen when vessels or fragments of pottery sherds from a major production centre are plotted. Shouldered jug in Mottled Brown ware
Shouldered jug in Mottled Brown ware was probably a regional import
Money boxes
Money boxes were discarded together in Oxford,
perhaps representing the old stock from a shop
Dated parallels A Vessel for ... Bibliography
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last updated: jcm/27-jun-2000